Nota Bene!
This is still a work in progress. While Dan has built a strong case for his conclusions based on his findings, they are not yet absolute proof, so please use this information wisely.~Thanks! Teresa

FROM: Dan Hamilton of West Brookfield, Massachusetts
“For several years now, I have been focusing on researching John Hamilton 1 and Christian and John Hamilton 2 and Hannah.

Now that I live in West Brookfield, MA, I have access to historical records of the Brookfield area and I have been visiting Concord, MA for more than a year.

I have been hoping to complete the research in such a way that I could report a finished product, all neatly wrapped up with all sources and proofs. But, I’m not there yet.

I realize I must share what I do have so as to lead others down the same lines should I suddenly be unable to finish.

I have found enough to prompt me to hire pro genealogist Diane Rapaport last summer to expand my search, supplementing with material she has found.

In order to share with those interested, I am going to place my material on Google Drive rather than fill the Yahoo storage space. I have many different folders in many different directions and it is all constantly being updated as I research more. It’s not ready to be written up, or published, but If you are interested in exploring with me, send me your private email, and I’ll send you a link to the Google Drive Folders.

I will use a different document to write about John 2 and Hannah. Through cluster research methods, gathering info on extended family and neighbor groups in both Concord and Brookfield, We know that the Concord records for their likely time of marriage have been lost.

I believe I have a very strong case to present showing that she is Hannah Hayward, daughter of Joseph and Hannah Hosmer Hayward of Concord. We have her birth, but no other record.

My key to finding her was her grandfather James Hosmer of Concord. The first Brookfield town grants to JH2 specified land formerly granted to James Hosmer – who never lived in Brookfield and had no other holdings. Those reference could be to James Sr. or his son James who died in Sudbury by indian attack in 1675.

Following that hint, and finding that the Hayward family women and their husbands moved as a group to Brookfield, reinforced the search results. Ebenezer Hayward, son of Joseph and Hannah, who had a land grant next to John’s, witnessed one of John’s land deeds. Ebenezer and other Hayward related men were among the victims of the indian attacks and became known as the Haymakers.

I also use software to illustrate relationships called XMind, and that helped to “see” the many overlapping connections among famiiies, land deeds, and histories.

More of that anon.

But first, summarizing my findings regarding the search for Christian:We have long assumed Christian was actually Christian Edwards, daughter of Robert Edwards of Concord and Christian, but had no proof of marriage, only the births of their children.

I believe Christian Edwards was the only surviving child of Robert Edwards and Christian, that she married John Hamilton, and that the 8 acres of land inventoried as John Hamilton’s in 1680 and described as being in “Elm Brook Meadow” was originally Robert Edwards land.

I have researched every woman named “Christian” in Middlesex County for the time period covering both Christian Edwards and her mother Christian, searching for a possible match in births, marriages (re-marriages_ and death records. I have found no other woman to be a candidate as the wife of John 1, other than Christian Edwards.

The NEHGS Great Migration series article on Robert Edwards states that his estate goes to his family and that there was no real estate included. We have the town record copy of his will which simply refers to his “estate” without mentioning land.

Shattuck in his History of Concord refutes the NEHGS, stating that the children of Robert Edwards had land in 1660.

Shattuck feels it likely that there were other children than Christian and Sarah (who died young).

I have researched land deeds and genealogies for all the potential and possible other Edwards and have proven otherwise.

I have found a land deed reference to land owned by “Robert Edwards His Children” which is in a town grant of land given to Joseph Wheeler in 1663. That land is located in the East Quarter, in the area known as “Elm Brook Meadow”. From the Wheeler grant, I know owners of other bordering properties and am searching the land deeds for any other reference to Edwards land.

I am also searching for the next owner of the Hamilton/Edwards land, as it is not the same as identified in the land sales of John Hamilton 2 to Peter Wright in 1704 (ClayPit Meadow – 5 ½ acres) and to Obadiah Wheeler Jr. in 1708 (Brook Meadow – 20 acres, Willow Swamp – 3 acres). Note that “Elm Brook Meadow” and “Brook Meadow” are two different areas of Concord.

I am searching through the land grants of most of the major families of Concord, including those mentioned as bordering the known Hamilton lands. The land sold to Peter Wright was then given to the Ministerial Lands at Peter’s death, and then later sold. I ‘m searching for those further deeds. I’m searching the Wheeler wills, land deeds, and probate papers to track the Hamilton land there.

There are terrific maps of Concord in “The Great Meadow” as many of you know. It helps to find locations. Learning the landholdings of the Hamilton borderings, helps pinpoint both physically and legally, the exact Hamilton land holdings and I haven’t yet finished. I’m hoping to correspond with the author and ask his help in pinpointing more accurately the Joseph Wheeler Elm Meadow piece, the ClayPit Meadow and Willow Swamp locations. Those can be found in other town record references, and some of the old maps in the Concord library. But, as families held many pieces of land for many different uses, tracking on specific piece gets hard.

I hope this is useful and provides food for thought and possible places to research should I not be able to continue my own efforts. It will take a day or two to upload the folders and files to Google Drive and there is a lot of material and not as organized or finalized as I would wish before sharing.

I never knew my mother, and family history was not a subject of interest to my father. I knew only the normal three generations of my father’s family and none of my mother’s.

That has all changed now, after genealogy became a passion, when I took early retirement in 2001. I have been able to fill in the blanks for hundreds of years on both sides, meet both new immediate family and distant cousins in the process, and most recently, move to the land of my paternal forefathers by buying an old farmhouse in West Brookfield, Massachusetts.

Oakholm Farm, Brookfield, Massachusetts

I had previously lived in New York City, and then upon retirement, moved to Dutchess County, about two hours north. As I learned about my Hamilton ancestors, I began visiting the associated towns and after returning repeatedly to the Brookfields area, realized the deep sense of belonging that I felt when I was there. It was what we call an impulse buy.

Quaboag Pond, Brookfield, Massachusetts

I had, over the years and multiple visits become acquainted with some of the local historic groups and people, all of whom are generous and passionate about sharing their knowledge. As I visited the libraries, explored the towns, studied the maps, read the land deeds, delved into the published and unpublished genealogies, and most importantly, benefited from the shared research, support, and guidance of the online John Hamilton of Charlestown/Concord groups, I found I was collecting and connecting to an enormous amount of information. That wonderful process is ongoing and wonderfully absorbing and satisfying. That’s a nice way of saying it can take over your life, as you all know.

I have had wonderful breakthroughs, tearing down what seemed to be substantial brick walls in my own personal research and sometimes in a distant cousin’s line. One of the more dramatic stories was the discovery that my maternal grandfather had forged documents and changed his name, left the country, and raised three other substantial families. I was suddenly overwhelmed with new living and loving aunts and uncles, and finally a maternal tree branch extendible into the past. Mutt, be gone!

I have been able to prove a previously unknown descent from an early Joseph Hamilton daughter, Millicent b.1720, whose second marriage and unreported children led to Army Chief of Staff Leonard Wood, the namesake of Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, and many others. The answer lay in previously unrecognized marriage records, wills, land deeds, revolutionary war pension records, and a hundred years of mistaken identity confusing two men of the same name born in the same year. That felt really good.

Joseph Hamilton Mill Site

I have traced my Hamilton line back from my engineer father, through successful and unsuccessful business men, paper companies, timber and iron barons, farmers and grist mill operators, soldiers, country doctors, farmers, maltsters, and a Scottish Prisoner of War. What Mutt?

I can now trace direct lines to New England historical figures, Mayflower passengers, Jamestown residents, Shakespeare and the kings of England, Scotland, Ireland and beyond!! Cue the music.

Not to mention a few actors now and then.

Two years ago, I drove around the United States coast to coast and border to border, taking two months to visit the living and the dead, tracing the migration of both sides of my own family and meeting the new faces and old. I visited towns, saw homes, explored cemeteries, and took photographs. It was wonderful, enlightening, and humbling.

Midura Conservation Land, Palmer, Massachusetts

My Hamilton research has lead not only to the constant collaboration with the online community, but my inheriting from Teresa the maintenance and research of the John Hamilton of Concord Descendant Tree on Ancestry.com. I’m proud to report that the constantly growing tree is now showing over 12,000 descendants and spouses. If you have information you would like to share on the tree, we would be pleased and proud to do so. The growth of the related Hamilton DNA research is helping us all fit the pieces of the puzzles together. I encourage anyone who has not done so to explore DNA testing and see if it would help your own research.

My focus on the Brookfields area has led to creating a research and resource website entitled appropriately enough: www.brookfieldsresearch.com

I work daily with the historic leaders, libraries, commissions and societies, and the people who live here in the old and new Brookfields. We are constantly adding new material, links, and media. I invite you to explore. My contact information is available there and, if I can, I’d be glad to help you in your research.

As are many of us Hamilton researchers, I am currently focusing on the first two generations, the missing maiden names of wives, and the SPOW experience and records. And I continue to explore the Brookfields. This Spring, if the snow ever disappears, I’ll walk the land and tour a house of a Hamilton farm from the late 1700’s. I’ve included some photographs on this page, all of past Hamilton lands.

Beyond Rice Memorial, West Brookfield, Mass.

I feel particularly fortunate to belong to this family, to feel as a thread in the fabric, and to begin to see the pattern emerge. It’s a wonderful sense of belonging. And purpose. And made even more so by the daily ability to travel through the early Hamilton lands; many of them still wild; An Audubon Preserve, another a Nature Conservancy. Perhaps to walk a field once farmed, sit on a stone wall, imagine the household there, and yes, the sounds of children. It’s a marvelous gift to pass on to the future.

According to Diane Rapaport’s research she believes that John Hamilton was a Scottish prisoner of war but was likely the “John Hanoman” on the John and Sara ship’s list. Since there is not an actual list for the ship Unity, there is actually nothing to say for sure he was on the Unity and it is possible he was the John Hanoman on the John and Sara. She believes that it is worthwhile to look at the original list to see if the name can be read more clearly. The transcription may have been poorly done.

She was able to find a few more details about John and his occupation in 1666. What is puzzling is the dates of 1692 and 1699 for John Hambleton, when we believe he died in 1681? The 1692 and 1699 dates may be referring to John Hamilton, Jr. born in 1667.

I have started following this blog (Boston 1775) recently (Thanks to Dan H. for sharing about this site!) and if you love Colonial history, especially the American Revolution, then I think you will like it too!

The owner/author of the page recently interviewed Nathaniel Philbrick regarding his new book, Bunker Hill, which I do plan on getting a copy of for my reference shelf. I am curious to see if I’ll find any New England ancestors in the book, too!

I read, and enjoyed very much, Nathaniel Philbrick’s Mayflower when it first came out in April 2007, and now after visiting his page at Amazon I see that he has many more books that I should be collecting! Wow!!!

I now realize that he is also a sailor, and man of the sea, and has written quite a few books on seaman and ships of Nantucket County, Massachusetts. My husband’s ancestors were seaman and many died at sea off the coast of Massachusetts, Maine, and Nova Scotia.

My husband Brad, and our four children: Nathaniel, Rachel, Ethan and Abigail (all Colonial names) and our grandson Aidan, all share a rich ancestry in the earliest settlers of Nantucket Island and its history. Names such as: Abigail Starbuck the daughter of Edward Starbuck, the first “Starbuck” on Nantucket in 1659, and Captain Thomas Gardner who came to America in 1624.

So, I am going have to start building a collection of Nathaniel Philbrick’s books I guess? 🙂 What joy!